Today, televisions (TVs) have been digitized gradually with the development of digital technology (existing analog televisions have been replaced with digital televisions), and on the one hand, a convergence of broadcasting and communication that provide content having different attributes through separate networks is accelerating. In other words, the initiative is shifted from unidirectional analog broadcasting to bi-directional digital broadcasting that interacts with the viewers. In addition, available methods that the viewers take advantage of the broadcast content are also diversified, inclusive of receiving the broadcast content through Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB), the Internet, and the like.
Conventionally, there has been used a method of selecting a limited number of panels, installing a dedicated apparatus required for viewer rating calculation at home of each of the selected panels, and collecting daily data on channels viewed by the household to calculate a viewer rating. Particularly, the data relevant to the viewed channels are transmitted in a lump in a specific time zone (e.g., 4 a.m. to 5 a.m.) to a server that calculates a viewer rating, and, thus, it is impossible to calculate a viewer rating in real time.
Further, the viewer rating calculation apparatus installed at home cannot identify which of the household members is viewing a current channel and thus cannot calculate viewer rating data with high reliability. Further, data provided by the viewer rating calculation apparatus include only information about which channel is viewed among channels broadcast in real time, and, thus, viewing of VOD (Video On Demand) cannot be included in the viewer rating data.